“Purple” Claim Sparks Controversy

People in the New Britain community are weighing Republican State Representative candidate Sharon Beloin-Saavedra’s claim that she is a “purple” candidate, and whether the claim makes them trust her more or less.

Beloin-Saavedra is the Republican candidate for the Twenty-Fourth Assembly District in the 2018 elections. The district represents several neighborhoods in New Britain and a neighborhood in Newington.

The candidate is seeking to parley her long history as a Democratic staffer and office-holder and her new status as the Republican standard-bearer into a win in the predominantly Democratic district.

Her campaign literature says, “Forget the labels. Think purple for progress!”

“Purple” is a term that political demographers have used to refer to areas where voters are neither solidly “red” for Republican nor “blue” for Democrats, but where there are some Republicans and some Democrats.

Beloin-Saavedra explains her use of the term as, “No party labels means Sharon is fighting for us.”

But, contrary to her claim to have, “No party label,” Beloin-Saavedra is running under a party label. In her campaign finance filing with the state she identified her “party affiliation” as Republican.

When asked online what she stands for, specifically, Beloin-Saavedra said, “Public education, property tax relief, prescription drug price reductions, keeping college graduates in State through meaningful employment opportunities, small business supports, helping seniors afford to retire here, deficit reduction, long term planning.”

Some people commented online in support of Beloin-Saavedra’s, “purple,” label, such as one who said, “we have to work together, compromise, and do what is best for our towns, our state and our country …. Sharon is the real deal and is relentless in pursuit of what is right.”

But a Beloin-Saavedra political ad online also drew a lot of criticism.

One person commented, “she’s a staunch Stewart supporter. Don’t let her try to get over with this politispeak.” Beloin-Saavedra confirmed that she is a supporter of Republican Mayor Erin Stewart.

Beloin-Saavedra has long claimed the mantle of being strong advocate for education. But her ally, Stewart, has been criticized for repeatedly flat-funding New Britain’s schools.

Another person, also commenting on Beloin-Saavedra’s ad asked, “She’s not a Republican, is she?,” continuing, “If she is she doesn’t have my vote.”

That drew a response, “She’s a Republican in disguise. A registered Democrat with Republican ideals. Don’t trust her.”

Still another person echoed that same question, “You are a Democrat endorsed by Republicans? Are you an undercover Republican disguised as a registered Democrat?”

One person simply commented, “nope.”

But a bigger question came when Beloin-Saavedra responded, “agree,” to an inquiry posed to her, premised on the films created by Dinesh D’Souza, a well-known right wing provocateur.

The person introduced a question he posed to Beloin-Saavedra by explaining that he had seen several D’Souza “documentaries”, naming one “documentary” critical of President Barack Obama. He described the “documentaries” as, “a true picture of what we are up against in this country. The same thing is going on in this state.”

He then asked, Beloin-Saavedra, “will you take a stand against all that?”

Beloin-Saavedra, asked, “‘All of that ‘ can you be specific as it relates to State legislation ?”

The questioner related his D’Souza question to the state budget, saying that the state is bankrupt, and that, “We need people in office who are willing to tell the truth and stand up to the unhealthy policies that have driven us to this cliff.”

Beloin-Saavedra responded, “agree”.

At least four days after making that comment, Beloin-Saavedra had not changed her statement, “agree,” to anything distancing herself from the positions of D’Souza.

D’Souza, a prominent Donald Trump supporter was pardoned by Trump after he had been convicted of making illegal campaign contributions.

D’Souza has been called racist for making comments such as one he Tweeted about Obama, saying, “You can take the boy out of the ghetto…”

D’Souza also referred to Rosa Parks as an, “overrated Democrat,” asking, “so what’s the big fuss,” about Parks’ famed heroism that inspired the Montgomery Bus Boycott that was a significant part of the Civil Rights Movement.

When Republican legislators in Florida had just voted down gun control legislation offered in the wake of the deadly shootings at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, D’Souza mocked tearful reaction of survivors of that shooting, saying, “Worse news since their parents told them to get summer jobs.”

In addition, the name of the “documentary” that the person had posed to Beloin-Saavedra, “Obama Deception,” does not appear to be title of a film made by D’Souza.

However, a “documentary” called, “The Obama Deception,” was made by right-wing conspiracy theorist Alex Jones.  Infamous for his InfoWars website, Jones is being sued by parents of children murdered at Sandy Hook Elementary School for his claim that the murders were a hoax.

When asked, Beloin-Saavedra did not say that she was retracting her, “agree,” response to the question that the person who asked said were premised on D’Souza “documentaries”.  Instead, she said, “I didn’t agree to his position on the documentary I agreed to his comment that we need honest politicians who tell the truth,” a distinction that her, “agree,” response had not made.

Beloin-Saavedra said that she never saw, “the documentary,” but did not not respond to a question about whether she felt that she should have done more research before answering, “agree,” to the question that was asked.

Editor’s note (10/14/2018): The article was updated with additional comments by Beloin-Saavedra.